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Somehow, I don't really think the scouts were there to see a specific player's trade value. I think it's a lot more likely that the majority of them were there to see how one of the projected top team in the East plays and how to stop them. Normally, they'd probably be split between watching the Habs and the Pens (and maybe the Rangers) but with those two other teams across the ocean, it gave us an inflated number in Montreal.
Late pre-season and early season is the best time to get a bearing on how your rivals are going to play for the season and start planning on how to defeat them. It's a bit too late to build a gameplan in december; and we can expect every team to double their efforts against ours this year.
There isn't any real need to send a scout to watch a Begin or a Dandenault play, they're pretty much known quantities as depth players and are more likely than not available for late picks so teams get those players more on an account of need of a warm body than on account of seeing something special in their play.
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